Colleen Kennedy is a child of Southern California.

Born, raised, and educated there, she spent most of her professional life as a high school special education teacher in Manhattan Beach, a tiny enclave wedged between Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.

She says, quote,

I love Southern California.

So where did the divorced 65-year-old mother of three grown children decide to settle for retirement?

Spain.

Earlier this month, she moved from Los Angeles to Mijas Costa, along the Costa del Sol west of Marbella, to a rented apartment just a 10-minute walk from the Mediterranean.

Despite the region's swank reputation, she figures her basic cost of living there will be a third of what it was in Los Angeles.

In L.A., she rented an apartment in the working-class San Pedro neighborhood near the beach and the port.

It cost about twice as much as her new Spanish digs.

Plus, in the U.S., she paid to keep a car, which she won't need in Mijas Costa, thanks to mass transit and stores that are within walking distance.

She'll also be able to make frequent, more affordable trips to other European countries by train.

She says, quote,

My money will go so much further.

Kennedy picked Spain after seven years of methodical research and a two-month trip to the Iberian Peninsula in 2022 to check it out.

She's learning Spanish via Zoom from another retired teacher who taught the language and has also retired there.

At last count, there were 701,000 U.S. Social Security recipients living abroad, up 20% over a decade.

Most Americans stay in the U.S. for retirement.

But an impressive 85% of Americans 65 and older have traveled abroad.

And the U.S. dollar is at its strongest level since the 1980s, making both foreign travel and a foreign retirement more affordable.

Moreover, in today's polarized political atmosphere, there's lots of talk about moving abroad, particularly if the perceived wrong side wins the presidential election.

In a recent poll, a record 34% of Americans said they'd leave the U.S. if they could, with young folks the most likely to pine for a change of country.

Yet even 17% of those 55 and older said they'd like to move abroad, and they're the ones who are the most able to do so since many countries welcome those with enough money to live without taking a local job.

Kennedy, for example, submitted the paperwork for a non-lucrative residence visa, including proof she had pension income of at least $30,000 a year.

at Spain's Los Angeles consulate, and was approved for it in just 15 days.

It doesn't allow her to work in Spain, but it could lead to permanent residency there in five years.

Whether you're looking for lower costs, attractive scenery, a change in lifestyle and culture, or a political escape hatch, moving to another country requires extensive research.

To get you started, Forbes has compiled our list of the best places to retire abroad.

In 2024, we recommend 96 places in 24 different countries on four continents, with five on islands.

It's our first foreign retirement list since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and our first that takes into account climate change and natural hazard risk abroad.

This is a consideration that Forbes has been incorporating into our domestic best places list for five years.

Other issues we considered in making our picks include cost of living, ease of getting permission to stay in a country, taxes, healthcare quality and costs, returning to see relatives, which can be a long slog, crime and political instability, and social isolation, especially if English isn't widely spoken and you're not fluent in the dominant language.

Our list includes countries from all around the world, from Albania to Costa Rica, Greece to Indonesia, Portugal to Uruguay.

For full coverage, and to see the whole list, check out William P. Barrett's piece on Forbes.com.

This is Ciarán Meadows from Forbes.

Thanks for tuning in.